Royal Guard Training

by Mocha Jon

Chapter 2

The three cadets under Shining Armor’s lead were escorted into their resting room, set up with three cots seated right next to each other. The three cadets each rushed over to them, Camo Cadet taking the one on the left, Combat Gear taking the one on the right, and Mocha Jon took the one in the middle as they each started unloading their bags.

Camo Cadet was seen taking out a pillow and a dark green blanket, with other shades of green on it looking like camouflage. “I heard the sleeping supplies here are itchy and old.” He said as he started making his bed. Underneath the blanket appeared to be a picture of a large yellow stallion who resembles Camo Cadet, only he was clearly more bulky and had an orange mane as opposed to Camo’s brown mane. Another picture was of a blue pegasus mare sitting next to Camo with the two smiling.

Mocha Jon leaned down and noticed the second picture, wondering who the mare in it was, “Hey, cool photos, who’s this mare here?” Jon asked as he placed the picture on the window edge next to Camo’s cot, “Is she your sister?”

Camo Cadet looked over and saw the small horned unicorn touch his picture and looked nervous, “Wow, please be careful with that!” He then sighed in relief as he saw it placed down safely, “And no, though I do love her like a sister, her name’s Sweet Tea, she’s my wife.” He said with a smile as he pointed to the cutie mark on her flank, a tea bag.

Combat Gear jumped over his cot then jumped over Mocha Jon’s to get a closer look, blushing at the sight of her, thinking she was pretty, “Wow, she looks like a nice lady. How does she feel about you joining the Royal Guards?” He asked as he made sure not to look too infatuated in her.

Camo Cadet blushed back as he looked at the picture too, “Oh she was very supportive, the hard part was knowing I would need to be away from her for so long during training. Our anniversary is actually in a week, I almost didn’t enlist.” He said as he turned over and looked in his wife’s eyes on the picture.

Jon looked a little surprised by that reveal, and Combat just widened his eyes, “Seriously? Your cutie mark is a symbol of defense, you almost choose to give it up?” Jon asked as he sat next to Camo.

“I don’t like losing the ponies I love, but I know I need to keep them safe.” He said as he started making his bed, looking more stern now, “I need to keep Equestria safe to keep her safe, that’s what she told me.”

Combat looked in the bag and noticed the other picture, seeming to recognize the stallion in it. “Wait, why do you have a picture of Yielding Sword with you?” He asked as he lifted it up with his hoof.

“Who’s Yielding Sword?” Jon casually asked.

“WHO’S YIELDING SWORD!?” Combat asked in shock, causing him to drop the picture, making Camo yell in panic.

“Catching!” Jon yelled as he used his horn to levitate the picture back up before it could hit the ground. Camo sighed in relief as he quickly swiped the levitating picture, looking bothered by Combat almost breaking it, “Smart move grabbing it, I can only hold objects up for about ten seconds before my horn shorts out.” Jon said as he pointed to his small horn.

“Well anyway…” Camo said as he carefully placed the picture next to his other one, adjusting it to be at the perfect angle, “...Yielding Sword is my father… Or at least he was… He died on battle two years ago.” He said as he looked down dispondantly, remembering him.

Jon felt guilty bringing the subject up after hearing that, and Combat was just shocked to find out that his new conrad was related to Yielding Sword. “Wait, you mean to tell me that your father, the stallion who helped create you, is the stallion who single hoofedly saved Princess Celestia’s life when she was being accosted by rebelling Earth Ponies!?” He asked excitedly, but he then noticed how morose the yellow pony looked remembering him, and decided to tone himself down, “He was… A really great general, I looked up to him a lot when I was a colt.” He said much more softly.

Camo looked back at the picture and had a faint smile on his face as he remembered what a great stallion his father he was. “Yeah, he was a great guy. I remember when he came home after the battle, he had a broken hoof and a jaw wired shut. They recommended he retire after that, but he said it was his duty to serve his whole life.” He said as he turned back to the two stallions, “He worked hard to keep Celestia and his family safe, and I want to do the same!”

“That’s really sweet, you know I can tell you have the heart of a soldier already, I know you’ll make Sweet Tea proud.” Jon said as he put his hoof on Camo’s shoulder.

Combat then began to take out his own bags and started unpacking. He unzipped it and a large amount of items over flowed out of it. “Okay, need to make sure it’s all there, let’s see, my prescription medicine, my non prescription medicine, my first aid kit, my watch synced up to the scientific clock out in the Crystal Empire, my mace spray, my pepper spray, my winter jacket, my summer portable fan, my survival guide book, my toothbrush, my back up toothbrush in case I screw up and get told to clean toilets with my toothbrush, my marching boots, my marching boot socks, my back up marching boot socks, my back up left hoof socks, my back up right hoof socks...” He continued to list all the items in his bag.

Jon then leaned over to Camo’s ear and whispered, “He brings all those things and I can’t even find matching socks from the dryer?” And Camo just chuckled at that joke.

“Combat Gear, why do you have all these things? I thought Shining Armor was going to provide us with everything we need.” Camo asked as he noticed he didn’t even open his second bag yet.

“Why do you think my name’s Combat Gear? I always bring back up supplies. When I was in grade school I was always the football team’s equipment manager, I was the hoofball team’s equipment manager in college, and I was always in charge of ordering new supplies for my mom at her store.” He said as he unzipped his other bag, a massive amount of random supplies cartoonishly exploded out and knocked Mocha Jon out of his seat.

“FALLING!!!” Jon yelled as he hit the ground, then standing back up. “Okay… Isn’t that a bit much though, I know it’s nice to be prepared and all but… That bag almost made a black hole with all it’s pressure.”

Camo and Combat playfully chuckled at seeing him crash like that, “Sorry about that. But I bring whatever I think I need. It’s how I got my cutie mark.” Combat responded as he continued checking his supplies.

“A combat boot and an arsonal utility belt? Makes sense for a public defender sure but how does supplying get that mark?” Camo asked as he was clearing the supplies off his bed.

“I was in school and the class was doing a play to honor the visiting Royal Guards. Everypony in the audience was so excited to see the show, but right before opening night, somepony lost her uniform.” He said as he started organizing his items by category. “Turns out her father was a visiting guard, so she started freaking out and crying.”

“I know the feeling, one time I almost broke my dad’s shield as a colt, I was so afraid of making him mad.” Camo added.

“I managed to catch up with her backstage and let her use my understudy costume. She was so grateful that she told her dad about it. He caught up with me and said it was like I was looking out for a fellow cadet and tousled my mane. Before I knew it the mark just showed up, and the guard told me it’s the same one the cadets’ supply stallion had.”

Jon finally caught his balance again and smiled at that story, “Wow, that’s pretty cool. He sounds like a nice guy.” He said as he started making his way around the room getting around the supplies, “Avoiding.”
Camo grinned at the story too, he liked hearing stories about guars motivating the young. “So ever since then you were practicing how to be the supply stallion for your section of guards? Now that’s preparing!” He said as he lied down in the cot fully. “Now it’s your turn, whatchya bring Jon?”

“Oh yeah!” Jon said as he took out his bag and unzipped it, “Unpacking.” Camo and Combat just looked at each other confused when he narrated again, wondering why he does that. When they looked back over, they noticed he brought… Stuffed animals? After Jon pulled out his blanket and pillow, he pulled out what looked like a toy skunk and chipmunk. “Nothing really special.”

“You brought… Toys to cadet raining?” Camo asked confused, not condemning or sounding rude, just confused.

“Well yeah, this is Jimmy.” He said as he softly tossed the skunk to camo,”And this is Ruth.” He said as he handed the chipmunk to Combat.

“I… Did not plan on that…” Combat said as he looked into the chipmunk’s eyes, it was admittedly cute. “Also why the name Ruth?”

“What, it’s a cute name.” Jon said as he used his horn to get the chipmunk back. He then tried to levitate the skunk one back, but it was further away and his horn’s magic faded too early, making it drop on Combat’s head. “Oh, sorry.”

Camo just chuckled and nodded, “Yeah it is. You know that’s nice that you still have these things. When I was a kid my mom told me I had to get rid of these in order to grow up.” He said as he reached over and tossed the other one back to Jon.

“Hey thanks. I know, it’s weird that I still sleep with these, but I just look into their eyes and they make me smile. You can laugh at me if you want.”

“Hey, we don’t judge. You’re our fellow trainee and we need to support each other!” Combat said as he agreed, “Plus that chipmunk did make me grin a bit.”

“It’s like my dad said, support your fellow soldiers. Keep Jimmy and Ruth as long as you want. I think it’s sweet.” Camo said as Combat and Jon both got into their cots.

“Thanks guys, you’re both really nice. I can’t wait to start training tomorrow!” Jon said as Combat turned off the light switch, they all needed to go to bed early if they were to meet Shining Armor at sunrise.

Comments

[Pyro Psycho]

I love Jon, I think he is cute with an adorable personality. The way he narrates his actions is a great touch and going off one of the other cadets reactions I think it will be explained to us in a future chapter.

As for the other too I like that we got a bit of backstory on them. Admittedly given their names I thought that they would be very (for lack of a better word) mean, but reading this chapter and seeing that they are actually very light hearted especially towards Jon is great.

This chapter was great and I cannot wait to see more. Keep it up :D

[Mocha Jon]

8732581
Thank you so much!!! I can't wait to hear more form you! You're really nice and your comments make me want to continue!

The Say What He Does thing is a habit I actually have in real life, I don't know why I do that honestly and everyone makes jokes about it (including me) so I thought, sense Mocha Jon is half self insert half OC I figured he should do that too.

That was intentional, I always hated how characters who are portrayed as masculine are usually portrayed as brutish and mean, but I wanted to prove that masculinity is actually a good thing, so I wanted to make them as likable as I can, because while this story is being written for my OC mainly, I wanted them to have an important role too!

[Pyro Psycho]

8732596
I think the narration thing is very cute, and it is very good that you are doing something against the norms, it shows you have originality and I think you and this fic have a lot of potential,

[Mocha Jon]

8732615
Thanks! The next chapter will be a large outlier but it will eventually tie into the story, so if it seems random, it is not

[Pyro Psycho]

8732616
Can't wait. :P